{"id":717048,"date":"2026-04-24T10:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:27:20","slug":"game-preview-san-antonio-spurs-vs-portland-trail-blazers-game-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717048\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Portland Trail Blazers, Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game Two of the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> went about as poorly as it could go. Not only did the team lose at home, surrendering home-court advantage, but they also lost their superstar big man, Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, to a concussion. Now, Wembanyama\u2019s status becomes the big question for Game Three.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama traveled with the team to Portland and is listed as questionable for Game Three. There is a chance he can play, but being just 72 hours removed from the initial incident, it will be a long shot for him to pass the league\u2019s concussion protocols and suit up on Friday night.<\/p>\n

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If Wembanyama is out, the Spurs will rely on Luke Kornet<\/a> as their starting center. They\u2019ll look to the rest of the supporting cast to replace Wemby\u2019s scoring in most of the team\u2019s first playoff experience in hostile territory. San Antonio won its only game in Portland this season, 115-102. De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a> scored 37 points in that game, and Kornet held down the paint with 3 blocks. That game could be the perfect blueprint for stealing a game on the road and re-taking a 2-1 lead in the series.<\/p>\n

April 24th, 2026 | 9:30 PM CTWatch: Amazon Prime Video | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)<\/p>\n

Spurs Injuries: Jordan McLaughlin<\/a> \u2013 Out (ankle), Victor Wembanyama \u2013 Questionable (concussion protocol)<\/p>\n

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Trail Blazers Injuries:\u00a0Damian Lillard<\/a> \u2013 Out (achilles)<\/p>\n

What to watch for:Backup center minutes<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Carter Bryant! You are the Spurs\u2019 de facto backup big man! When Wembanyama went down, Mitch Johnson went to Bryant as the backup center when Kornet needed a spell. The results were mixed. Bryant plays with excellent energy and made some winning plays on the offensive end. However, the Blazers attacked the basket with even more force when Bryant was playing the five. He was -14 in his 12 minutes. He simply lacks the size to play big minutes at center. Assuming Wembanyama is out, Bryant will probably need to play backup center again. The Spurs will need to hope the advantages he creates offensively outweigh the problems his lack of size makes defensively.<\/p>\n

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Or, Johnson may need to go to his big man depth for at least a few minutes while Kornet sits. Mason Plumlee<\/a> seems like the most likely candidate to get spot minutes. He was largely ineffective in the regular season, but at this point, the Spurs may need another big body. All Plumlee needs to do is grab rebounds and hold his own against Robert Williams III<\/a> and Donovan Clingan<\/a> in short spurts to help San Antonio withstand the non-Kornet minutes.<\/p>\n

Can the guards step up?<\/p>\n

It has not been the best start to the series for the Spurs\u2019 guards. Fox has played the best out of the three, but went ice-cold in the fourth quarter of Game Two when San Antonio needed him the most. Stephon Castle<\/a> has been wildly inefficient, going 11-33 from the field in the first two games. Things seemed to click for Dylan Harper<\/a> in Game Two, but he has made some rookie mistakes as well. San Antonio will need all three of them to play at the top of their games to beat Portland on the road.<\/p>\n

Fox should have the ball in his hands frequently. He\u2019s been great when Wembanyama doesn\u2019t suit up this season. There is no reason to doubt his ability to rise to the occasion on Friday. Castle is needed in a major way on both ends. Whether it\u2019s slowing down Scoot Henderson<\/a> and Deni Avdija<\/a> on defense or scoring efficiently around the rim, San Antonio needs Castle to get back on track. Harper can be a spark plug for a Spurs\u2019 bench unit that has lacked some punch in the series so far. Either he or Keldon Johnson<\/a> needs to add some scoring off the bench.<\/p>\n

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Three-point shooting<\/p>\n

One of the biggest differences from Game One to Game Two was the Spurs\u2019 three-point shooting. San Antonio shot 15-33 (45%) in Game One, and 7-24 (29%) in Game Two. Portland has shot below 35% in both games and was 28th in three-point percentage in the regular season. If San Antonio continues to play tough perimeter defense, they can hold Portland at bay from deep. They need to hit their threes, especially while the Blazers have been so effective at protecting the paint.<\/p>\n

San Antonio could use some hot shooting from its best shooters. Julian Champagnie<\/a> has been efficient on low volume, hitting 4 of his 6 attempts from three in two games. Devin Vassell<\/a> went 0-5 from deep in Game Two\u2019s loss. Harrison Barnes<\/a> has yet to hit a three-pointer in the series. One or multiple of these three will need to be a threat from outside in what will most likely be a very tough Game Three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game Two of the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers went about as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,978,73045,125,1314,980,2725,974,226,2992,7993,4076,2850,4996,12445,3361,6,687,471,3967,13399,969,474,4425,930,2594,1617,1928,693],"class_list":["post-717048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-carter-bryant","tag-concussion-protocol","tag-damian-lillard","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-deni-avdija","tag-devin-vassell","tag-donovan-clingan","tag-dylan-harper","tag-harrison-barnes","tag-jordan-mclaughlin","tag-julian-champagnie","tag-keldon-johnson","tag-luke-kornet","tag-mason-plumlee","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-robert-williams-iii","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-scoot-henderson","tag-stephon-castle","tag-the-spurs","tag-trail-blazers","tag-tx","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}